Standing in a crumbling shop piled full of TVs and videos, Andrei Lugovoi - prime suspect in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko - explains what he will do if he becomes an MP. He says he wants to get a new lavatory for the village school. He will also donate a million roubles in libel damages to an orphanage, won from a Russian newspaper after it called him a murderer.

'I'm new in politics, I haven't decided what to do yet,' Lugovoi admits. Outside on the icy street, an old woman in a large fur hat shuffles past. Had she heard of Lugovoi? 'I've only heard of Putin,' she says.

One year after Litvinenko, a Russian dissident, died an excruciating death in a London hospital, the man who allegedly slipped polonium into his tea is embarking on a new career in Russian politics. Last month Lugovoi, a former KGB agent, joined the Liberal Democrats - a pro-Kremlin ultra-nationalist party. If elected next Sunday, when Russians go to the polls for a new parliament, Lugovoi will have performed the most improbable CV leap - from suspected assassin to celebrity politician.

According to British prosecutors, it was Lugovoi who met Litvinenko in the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, London, on 1 November last year. Litvenenko died three weeks later. Since then Lugovoi has become synonymous in Britain with Vladimir Putin's new cold war against the West. In Russia, however, Lugovoi is hailed as a patriot.

Over the past three weeks he has been crisscrossing Russia. Everywhere he has taken the same message: Britain is a rogue state. It is also not very good at football, he points out: 'We were joking on the plane over here whether we should congratulate the England team.'

Lugovoi claims that the British had spirited away video evidence from the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square. He maintains that it was MI6 that killed Litvinenko. 'The Litvinenko affair is the greatest failure by the British secret services,' he said.

He has little sympathy for Litvinenko's widow, Maria - who last week used the anniversary of her husband's murder to announce she was taking Lugovoi to the European Court of Justice. Russia has refused to extradite him. As an MP, he would enjoy immunity from prosecution. 'I understand the wish of the relatives to find justice. But someone is trying to politicise this,' he said. 'At the end of the day, Litvinenko was a spy spying on his own country.'

Lugovoi was on the campaign trail last week in Manturovo, a village 60 miles from Kursk. He visited a state-of-the-art cowshed before dropping into an orphanage. After that, he addressed supporters in a pink-painted public hall decorated with a relief of Lenin.

The fur-coated locals listened politely. Several times they even clapped. Lugovoi said that Britain was to blame for many of Russia's woes. The British had invaded Crimea and were still behaving like 'Anglo-Saxon imperialists'. He noted: 'If you look at Russian-British relations, the cold war never started and never ended.'

What did villagers think of him? Did they really want to vote for someone famous for being - well - a suspected assassin? 'It's difficult to say,' said Viktor Shumakov, a veteran of Afghanistan. 'In Russia, many strange things happen all the time. Britain is a long way away. But I know you have nice apples.'

Most in Manturovo, though, were preoccupied with simple issues: low pensions, high local unemployment and the fact that half the villagers were drunk.

Ahead of the elections, the Kremlin has changed the rules - raising the threshold to enter Russia's State Duma from 5 per cent to 7 per cent. Although the move is designed to kill off Russia's democrats, it could also hurt Lugovoi's Liberal Democrats, currently on about 6 per cent.

The Kremlin has long controlled Russian TV and many Liberal Democrat voters said that Putin would guarantee a landslide for the United Russia party by using the state's formidable 'administrative resources'. 'What happens is that the head of the village is told that he has to get a certain number of votes for United Russia. If he doesn't, he'll lose his job. He then tells everyone else to vote for United Russia or they'll lose their job. The fear factor is very effective,' said Alexander Gennadyevich, a Lugovoi supporter.

Russia's election comes as the country moves into an uncertain new era. Putin has to step down as President next May, having served two consecutive terms. In reality, the Kremlin appears to be working on a plan to allow him to carry on as Russia's de facto leader.

Lugovoi is a tentative performer. After a day in which he failed to meet more than a handful of voters, he did manage to pose with a folk singer playing an accordion. Nearby, his aides tucked into a buffet of stuffed fish and fruit vodka.

With the Russian winter already gripping the countryside, Lugovoi took to the stump in a business suit, swirling purple tie and crocodile leather shoes. He looked utterly out of place among the helmet-like hairstyles of his Soviet-looking female electorate.

Despite his dislike of all things British, Lugovoi has a love-hate relationship with the British media. By keeping in the public spotlight, he avoids the fate of ex-spies who know too much.

Lugovoi used to travel to Britain frequently; diplomatic sources say he tried to poison Litvinenko twice before succeeding. Given that he cannot now go to London, is there anything about Britain he misses? 'I don't think so,' he told The Observer. 'I don't think about your Queen much. And I don't like beer. No, I can't think of anything,' he said.